Jasper Lawrence here

[JasperLawrence]

Hi, I got an invite to this forum a while ago but did not respond until now. Thrilled to find this active community, I am a firm believer in the basic idea of the PD and a Palaeolithic lifestyle.

It was a blog post of mine advocating such things that lead to my invite here, for those interested:
http://blog.autoimmunetherapies.com/blog/2010/06/01/if-i-was-really-sick-still-this-is-what-i-would-do/

So thanks to Edwin for inviting me.

A little history, I am the guy who went to Cameroon and infected himself with hookworm and in so doing put my asthma and allergies, and IBS, into remission. Story here: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/30/91945/8971

And article advocating the use of benign infectious organisms, you know, probiotics but scary, here: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2009/3/16/3408/66053

In researching all that, and founding Autoimmune Therapies to prove helminths for health, I encountered  the Palaeolithic Diet and other concepts I have integrated into my life. With enormous benefits.

I don't use toiletries or soap/shampoo, eat dirt (Pica), get lots of sunlight and no sunblock, ever, exercise a lot, and am happier and healthier at any time in my life. On that blog post I regret not advocating dropping caffeine.

And carbohydrates, in my opinion, are evil.

I also started a yahoo forum on helminthic therapy and wrote www.hygienehypothesis.com if anyone is interested. The Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/helminthictherapy/

Nice to find such a large group of kindred spirits, really stoked to be here and hoping to learn a lot.

Jasper

[goodsamaritan]

Hi Jasper!
I knew your name was familiar.
I blogged about you.

I have tapeworms. live proglotids in my poop from time to time.
But I'm still on the fence whether I should get rid of it now or wait later.
Probably the raw beef I eat here is where I got it.

If I drug them and they go away for a while, a reinfection is assured anyway.
So why not just keep my little tapeworm friend for a while?

[kurite]

Welcome! I remember seeing your story like 2 years ago. Did the hookworms have any side effects?

[JasperLawrence]

The only side effect was when the FDA visited me, classified them as an Investigational New Drug and I had to leave my home of 23 years and my children permanently. I now live outside the US, never to return. It is pretty weird.

Hookworm cause no pathology and the CDC actually recommends US doctors not treat light infections, which is all anyone needs.

Thank you, Federal Government.

[PaleoPhil]

Welcome Jasper. Good to have you here. I read your story with interest.

Friendly heads up about the carbs--that can be a divisive issue here.

[JasperLawrence]

Thanks for the heads up, but I am no zealot, just my opinion.

[wodgina]

The only side effect was when the FDA visited me, classified them as an Investigational New Drug and I had to leave my home of 23 years and my children permanently. I now live outside the US, never to return. It is pretty weird.

Hookworm cause no pathology and the CDC actually recommends US doctors not treat light infections, which is all anyone needs.

Thank you, Federal Government.

Serious? or am I naive?

[JasperLawrence]

If you are naive then I was too.

Serious.

Not only that but they refuse to tell my attorney what the charges are, a sealed warrant "if there are any" and "he will have to return to the US to talk to us in person if he wants to know what the charges are".

[wodgina]

If you are naive then I was too.

Serious.

Not only that but they refuse to tell my attorney what the charges are, a sealed warrant "if there are any" and "he will have to return to the US to talk to us in person if he wants to know what the charges are".

yeah, sounds real tempting...

[miles]

Hey Jasper you said you had waist-length hair in one of those links. Do you also have full-length facial hair? I've never seen a man with fully natural hair and I'd like to see what happens.

[JasperLawrence]

I had waist length hair when I was young, I think you are referring to a lady who followed my advice who has waist length hair, one of the comments.

Beards make me itch, I shave using a simple emulsion of lanolin and water as a lubricant.

[miles]

Lanolin! I've been trying to get that for my wool jumpers. I ordered '100% Pure Lanolin' and got: Petrolium Jelly, Lanolin, Paraffin, Parfum... So if you know where I can get some pure lanolin I'd appreciate it.

[Caveman]

Hey Jasper you said you had waist-length hair in one of those links. Do you also have full-length facial hair? I've never seen a man with fully natural hair and I'd like to see what happens.

I've got "fully natural hair", if you want to see what that looks like. Haven't brushed/combed my hair in almost two years and rarely wash it. Definitely lacking in facial hair because of my health and low testosterone, though.

[kurite]

The only side effect was when the FDA visited me, classified them as an Investigational New Drug and I had to leave my home of 23 years and my children permanently. I now live outside the US, never to return. It is pretty weird.

Hookworm cause no pathology and the CDC actually recommends US doctors not treat light infections, which is all anyone needs.

Thank you, Federal Government.

You can't even visit your children? Wtf is wrong with America! Did they shut you down because you were selling the hookworms (if I remember correctly)? Why didn't they shut you down why did they kick you out of the country?

[JasperLawrence]

I really am uncomfortable discussing it in public, for what I hope are obvious reasons. But in short:

I did not fancy my odds because they classified them as an Investigational New Drug, a pharmaceutical.

Add in interstate commerce, medical claims (we published survey results to show, well, results), deliberately infecting people with a "disease", see AIDS related laws about deliberate infection, which are written broadly, etc., etc., etc.

Now they refuse to tell my lawyer anything.

Add in a hostile ex, plus the fact that children cannot travel abroad without permission of both parents.

Then there are all the stories of the FDA essentially abducting people they want from abroad, and you get a nervous person.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027750_Greg_Caton_FDA.html

[kurite]

I really am uncomfortable discussing it in public, for what I hope are obvious reasons. But in short:

I did not fancy my odds because they classified them as an Investigational New Drug, a pharmaceutical.

Add in interstate commerce, medical claims (we published survey results to show, well, results), deliberately infecting people with a "disease", see AIDS related laws about deliberate infection, which are written broadly, etc., etc., etc.

Now they refuse to tell my lawyer anything.

Add in a hostile ex, plus the fact that children cannot travel abroad without permission of both parents.

Then there are all the stories of the FDA essentially abducting people they want from abroad, and you get a nervous person.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027750_Greg_Caton_FDA.html

I understand why you would want to keep that private.  It just really bothers me.

[JasperLawrence]

I find it profoundly disturbing, too, these do after all fit the definition of probiotics, as well as medical devices and vaccines, this according to the FDA definitions. But someone in an office, likely without windows, decided it was a drug in the course of a few days.

I really like your signature line a well:

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."

It is hard to reconcile America's mythologised-self with my experience of it, not that the US is unique in that respect. But it is hard to understand the practice of personal freedom there, and to reconcile that with my, apparently mistaken, belief of what freedom means.

After all, if you and I don't control our own bodies, what do we control? I read about those raw food raids in LA a while ago, wow. I have always wondered why suicide was illegal, too. I mean, WTF?

Nor is this a novel molecule, this is a micro-organism that infects about 3/4 billion people, most of whom are asymptomatic. It has been studied since the mid 19th Century, and the CDC recommends US doctors *not* treat light infections. The science that it is safe, safer than aspirin by far, is overwhelming.

Perhaps the FDA and CDC need to talk?

Perhaps the FDA needs its collective ass kicked?

[JasperLawrence]

I have tapeworms. live proglotids in my poop from time to time.
But I'm still on the fence whether I should get rid of it now or wait later.
Probably the raw beef I eat here is where I got it.

If you live in the US I am surprised, I thought tapeworm had been eliminated except for pockets in Africa and bits of the Far East.

If I drug them and they go away for a while, a reinfection is assured anyway.
So why not just keep my little tapeworm friend for a while?

I considered tapeworm for my immunological problems, but rejected them as too large and too consumptive of calories. But for immune modulation I would bet they have no equal just because of their size. All that mass and contact with our tissues, they have to secrete anti inflammatory molecules along their length.

Any changes to your skin, hayfever, or whatever. I am curious.

Did you know a grown beef tapeworm consumes up to 30% of your caloric intake?

[JasperLawrence]

Lanolin! I've been trying to get that for my wool jumpers. I ordered '100% Pure Lanolin' and got: Petrolium Jelly, Lanolin, Paraffin, Parfum... So if you know where I can get some pure lanolin I'd appreciate it.

I actually settled for a lanolin petrolatum mix, it was the best I could do, and I shave infrequently as a result. If you find a source let me know, it seems Australia or New Zealand would be good bets. Both produce a lot of lamb and wool.

[JasperLawrence]

I've got "fully natural hair", if you want to see what that looks like. Haven't brushed/combed my hair in almost two years and rarely wash it. Definitely lacking in facial hair because of my health and low testosterone, though.

bummer, but it could just be youth and a relatively hairless face. I have friends with little facial hair, and am jealous. I hate shaving, and the disposable industry providing hideously overpriced razors and blades. I used a straight razor for years, but when I left the US carrying a whetstone, strap and straight razor could not be justified. The backpack was too small and I did not want to carry anything I did not absolutely need.

We left on foot, for Mexico, via Tijuana. No border control entering Mexico there.

A tip.

[kurite]

If you live in the US I am surprised, I thought tapeworm had been eliminated except for pockets in Africa and bits of the Far East.

I considered tapeworm for my immunological problems, but rejected them as too large and too consumptive of calories. But for immune modulation I would bet they have no equal just because of their size. All that mass and contact with our tissues, they have to secrete anti inflammatory molecules along their length.

Any changes to your skin, hayfever, or whatever. I am curious.

Did you know a grown beef tapeworm consumes up to 30% of your caloric intake?

Nah GS is in the Phillipines, Manilla I believe. Still I wonder if a tapeworm is able to survive in a healthy body for prolonged periods of time. I know that eating straight pineapple for a few days will kill it, but can't they lay eggs within your muscles?

[JasperLawrence]

Nah GS is in the Phillipines, Manilla I believe. Still I wonder if a tapeworm is able to survive in a healthy body for prolonged periods of time. I know that eating straight pineapple for a few days will kill it, but can't they lay eggs within your muscles?

Are you sure about that pineapple thing, my experience is that only nitrous oxide will kill hookworm or whipworm, or some VOCs like chloroform, as well as drugs, anti helminthics, intended to kill them. Even then it can take a dose or two.

Not sure how long the different species of tapeworm live, and I asked about the species he has, or meant to, just because of the mis migration issue. Unless he has beef or perhaps fish tapeworm it is might be possible, although auto infection probably does not occur as he seems to think. But again, tapeworm are not what I have any expertise in, except that I rejected them as unsuitable for therapeutic use.

One issue with them is that beef tapeworm shed proglottid sacks which literally walk out your ass after 166 days, meaning you leave  a trail of infectious waste behind. It is actually a mark of status, either low or high, to have proglottid sacks walk down your legs in various third world cultures. At least, that is what I have read.

No, tapeworm do not infiltrate your tissues, in fact the only one I know that does is trichinosis (under cooked or raw pork), although there are probably others.

You may be thinking of zoonotic infections, where a parasite enters a host other than its definitive one (the one it requires for its reproductive cycle, not necessarily that it reproduces in the host mind). So there are "human" hookworm and "dog" hookworm, etc.

In those cases mismigration is possible, as in pig tapeworms ending up in your head, etc. But most such infections end rapidly with the destruction of the parasite, because it is not adapted to evade or manipulate that host's immune system.

[PaleoPhil]

Jasper, do you know what species of so-called "parasites" have developed a symbiotic relationship with humans (hookworms is one, obviously, and it sounds like maybe tapeworms) and what species of animal(s) were their original host(s) before our ancestors first acquired them? In a traditional society, approximately what percentage of people will host parasite-like symbionts?

[JasperLawrence]

What parasites a person would expect to host, ignoring bacteria, would vary tremendously based on soil types, rainfall, host genetics, food gathering or farming practices, climate, etc.

But in a lifetime it was typical to be constantly infected with a variety of helminths and protozoa. There was an interesting, if speculative, paper positing that the rise in colorectal cancer was linked to clean drinking water, specifically the elimination of the protozoa Eimeria. It was just epidemiological evidence but it was compelling.

Basically the numbers and variety of parasitic, commensal and mutualist symbionts we are exposed to, the most important probably being in childhood, have been substantially reduced. We are also no longer required to "tough it out" with infections, antibiotics have put paid to that. So that even non-lethal infections are not allowed to run their course.

Then there are all the vaccines, the number given before age six routinely in the US is ridiculous already (Chicken pox, really?) and set to DOUBLE in the next decade or so. And these are mandatory. When my kids were in school you could refuse for religious reasons (in my opinion superstition) but not on the basis of reason or science... That is your kid would be excluded from school if you did not get them all the shots, including chicken pox.

Then there are all the lame ads for hand sanitisers, etc.

The irony is that while everyone worries about the "environment" as something over there and separate from them, natural selection through the destruction of our personal ecosystems is already sickening and shortening the lives of literally hundreds of millions of people world wide. People who represent the very latest genetic model, in Palaeolithic terms.

Crohn's, UC and Coeliac disease have all been shown to arise out of polymorphisms that have been shaped by coevolution with parasites, and in particular helminths for instance. People are getting sick because they are so well adapted to parasites, but the immuno modulatory effect is absent, because they are.

Obviously I could go on all day. 

[goodsamaritan]

We would really like you to go on all day... really!  

We have a thirst for various opinions here.  And your opinions are most welcome.